Christmas newsletter 2016 by Jan Crumpley

Window on the Green at From

and

How lucky I am to manage this quaint little shop on the Green, The Delaware Store. Here I sit every day looking out

of MY WINDOW ON STATE STREET. From time to time I will be writing to you and Window on State Street seems so appropriate. So much history has passed down this street, once called the King’s Highway, because of course, it was his highway. Windows have faced this street for a very long time, first as The Golden Fleece Tavern and then the Capitol Hotel and now the Parke Building, home of the Delaware Store and the Parke Green Galleries. There is a lot of activity here right now, getting ready for the 18th Century Market Fair and of course, Christmas. One of the great advantages of aging is the loss of short term memory. By that I mean that every time I open a box full of merchandise that Jan and I ordered many months ago, it is always such a surprise. Did I order that? Oh that is so great, did we order enough? So every box is a delight and a surprise. Soon everything will be on the shelves and my good friend Debbie will be in to “fluff” the store. She rearranges everything and then adds the holiday lights and decorations and like magic, it is Christmas at the shop. We have some really nice gifts, apparel, and brand new items to delight you. We are making a special effort to make sure your holiday dollars go a little further with us. Please join our Delaware Club. If you work in downtown Dover, or if you are employed by the federal, State, county, or city government you save money every time you shop with us, 10% to be exact. That also includes members of our military. Stop by, sign up, and start saving today. Stop by and say hello, I have a few stories to share with you about the Golden Fleece and the Capitol Hotel....and don’t be surprised if you catch me staring out of My Window on State Street. ~ Tom

News from Taylor Summer and Fall have found me busily painting and writing away. I completed several plein air paintings as well

as a couple of commissions and am ready to meet your holiday and decorating needs. Plein air excursions with my painting buddies in the Plein Air Painters of the Mid Atlantic is always fun. Painting our delightful sites throughout the region and especially our Delaware beaches is still my favorite thing to do. Horseshoe crabs are also a favorite theme. A highlight of this year is that two of my paintings are now in the collections of Delaware’s First Lady Mrs. Carla Markell and another in State Representative’s Sean Lynn. My work was also selected to hang in US Senator Thomas Carper’s office and will be there until next year. My newest print has been released and is available for $100. The coolest thing about this print is that they were filming some of us painting plein air for a promotional video for shopping downtown, so you may even see me actually painting it. It is entitled “First Flags in the Last Park.” “FirstFlags” is the designation I give to all paintings painted here on the site of the Golden Fleece. If you’re going to purchase a flag painting, it should be one that is painted where our country started, right? And as most of you know, until last year, Delaware was the only state that did not have a park in the National Park Service. Thanks to diligent efforts of Senator Thomas Carper, The Green has been designated as part of the National Park Service and Delaware has the unique distinction of being the first state to ratify and the last state to get “parked.” “First Flags in the Last Park” will be an 8x10” giclee on canvas which is so close to looking like the original it will be almost like owning the original. It can also be framed under glass if you prefer. On my writing side of life, I was selected by the Delaware Division of the Arts for their writer’s retreat and worked on some poems. I hope to have a collection together soon as well a prose work about my mentor Jack Lewis. I am fortunate to have been able to speak with Hank Smallwood prior to his death and will also share some of his thoughts. I am still holding my weekly writing group and will be offering evening sessions beginning in January. Monthly themes are explored using handwritten methods in journals.

“First Flags in the Last Park” will be an 8x10” giclee on canvas which is so close to looking like the original it will be almost like owning the original.

Notes from Jan I am the luckiest gal in town. I am surrounded by wonderful friends and neighbors whose talent & knowledge of history buoys me daily. I have been very busy this year doing things for my various non-profit organizations. I love those jobs, but I am going to have to be more diligent about painting! I don’t have enough paintings to show for 2016. I am planning to go to Galveston, Texas to sketch & paint for a few weeks in January. They have so many Victorians that treasured there and I’d love to paint or sketch them! As some of you may know, I am also a musician and my band, Celtic Harvest, has been in the studio this to mark our 20th year together - we are making a new CD! It is not quite ready, but it will be ready by March! I am always learning and I have been taking music lessons to learn the ukulele! So, don’t be surprised to see that incorporated into the entertainment at Parke Green Galleries & the the Delaware Store for First Fridays. (Which are not gone, we always do something on First Fridays, come by!)

Parke Green Galleries Happenings

Lots of great news. We welcomed Jo Freed to the gallery in October. She has a terrific selection of originals and prints. Her Fifer Farms prints is an exception value either framed or unframed.

Maria Liberto Bissette has a terrific selection currently and all her items are 35 percent off through the end of the year. She works primarily in oil but has a terrific selection of floor cloths, prints and cards. Her originals are in a variety of sizes and many are gallery wrapped which saves additional framing costs. We encourage you to come early as originals are one-of-a-kind and once it’s sold, there is not another one. Taylor is making sure that her driftwood santas get done more timely this year and will have lots of them available for sure as well as many smaller originals which are great hostess gifts as well as decorator ideas.

“Fifer Farms” by Jo Freed Linda Chatfield has a wonderful selection in different medias including her very affordable intaglio etchings. They make wonderful gifts and especially nice if you’re looking for local buildings of note. She also takes commissions on silhouettes which are truly unique for grandchildren and great-grandchildren mementos.

“Fifer Farms” by Linda Chatfield

On December 11 we will be dedicating the Annie Jump Cannon gallery and will also be laying flowers on her gravesite in Dover in honor of her birthday. Her house is located on State Street and was recently listed in the Register of Historic Places. Be sure to save the date for this and other planned holiday events as we will have specials and refreshments throughout the season with extended hours.

NOT SO LONG AGO Schuyler and I were watching the Hallmark Channel and

it was one of those predictable Christmas stories. The story line was about the importance of rituals and family. However, when you are 10 or 11 years old, well, Christmas is all about rituals.

In November of every year the elementary grades at Bridgeville School would all walk down a few blocks to the Sydney Theater to see a showing of The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story. We dutifully each brought our admission which was a can of something, usually vegetables we did not like. The film was produced by the Bell Companies...remember them..The Diamond State Telephone Company. The characters in the films were marionettes and the narrator read Twas the Night Before Christmas and The story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible. You could see the strings on the marionettes and we saw the same film year after year, but it meant to me Christmas was starting, it was exciting. https://youtu.be/2OB0Lf5CKDM <--- Watch it here! At home Christmas meant that my Mother, Alberta would be doing some baking. When she made cakes I got to lick the beaters and sometimes the bowl and even the spatula. Of course there was the making of the sugar cookies. My Mother made the very best sugar cookies, or so it seemed to me. Now my Aunt Lola was the best cookie maker in Sussex County, but I do think Alberta got the prize for sugar cookies. She continued to make them until she was 92. Oh my, how I so miss those cookies. Cakes and sugar cookies, that meant Christmas to me. The last day of school would arrive before the Christmas holiday and I would be so very excited that I would almost run home. This was the day we trimmed the tree. It would be waiting for us in the front bay window and the living room would smell like pine. Uncle Eddie and I would go to the attic and get the boxes of lights and decorations. Some of the glass ornaments were so fragile, they came from â&#x20AC;&#x153;the old countryâ&#x20AC;? my Mother would tell me. Where was the old country? I guess where my Great Grandparents came from.

n o g n i l o r a C n! e e r G e h t

Under the tree went the stable and painted plaster figures of the Holy Family and the wise men and cows and sheep, all on a bed of cotton, surrounded by a white picket fence. There....we were ready for Christmas and Santa Claus. Every Christmas I sit in front of our tree, ablaze with a zillion white lights and have a cup of hot chocolate and think about being 10 years old again......marching to the Sydney Theater, helping my Mother bake, well actually just waiting for the first sugar cookies to come out of the oven, finding the decorations in the attic with my Uncle Eddie, setting up our Christmas story under the tree with painted plaster figures....all these special rituals that meant Christmas to me...a little boy in ..... BRIDGEVILLE....NOT SO LONG AGO.